With her successful fashion label and the Duchess of Cambridge catapulting her creations into the spotlight, life sounds pretty dreamy for designer Alice Temperley and her London-based business, but there's a cause close to home causing her much angst.

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The 36-year-old has appealed to friends and acquaintances to lobby against the government's new proposed minimum price for alcohol. Temperley grew up on her parent's cider farm in Somerset, and her family are seeking exemption from the plans, which will double the price of traditional cider and result in the West Country's cider makers becoming extinct.

Julian Temperley with one of his cider products. Photo: Christopher Jones

Temperley's father Julian and his colleague Tim Stoddart have pooled their expertise in fermenting and blending the region's best apples for over 50 years from the family's Burrow Hill farm where Alice wed Temperley CEO Lars von Bennigsen in 2002.

"The mystique will be torn out of the heart of cider and the damage will be far greater than people can imagine" said Julian Temperley of the impact of the new law. "It would even affect a £50 bottle of Somerset Cider Brandy."

The local cider producers have set up
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'SOS Scrumpy' pages to drum up awareness and support, and to detail the far-reaching impact the price-hikes will generate, in particular the environmental impact that defunct orchards will have upon local wildlife.

An online petition has been started for traditional, bought-from-the-barrel farmhouse scrumpy to be exempt from the possible new law. If the document gains 100,000 signatures, a debate will be guaranteed in parliament.